Abortion: Waiting Periods | In the News

A number of state legislatures and organizations put barriers between women and abortion care by directly interfering with a woman's medical care. Waiting period requirements make abortion care more difficult to get, especially for rural and low-income women. They require that a woman wait a specified amount of time before obtaining an abortion after her initial consultation. These laws insult women by presuming that they have not considered their decision carefully, and they impose real obstacles on getting abortion care. They may require two trips to the clinic, which may be hundreds of miles away, and each trip may require getting child care, transportation, and time off of work. Most waiting periods are 24 hours, but some are as long as 72 hours.

Fla. Judge Reinstates Hold on 24-Hour Mandatory Delay Law
A Florida judge on Thursday issued an order temporarily blocking a state law (HB 633) that imposes a 24-hour mandatory delay before an abortion, after the law briefly took effect on Wednesday, News Service of Florida/WTXL reports.

Featured Blogs
"The Worst State for Reproductive Rights" (Khazan, The Atlantic, 5/12); "The Family Planning Cuts That the Texas Legislature Forced Through Are Having Dire Consequences" (Culp-Ressler, "ThinkProgress," Center for American Progress, 5/12); "California Judge: Abstinence-Only Sex Education Isn't Sex Education at All" (Kutner, Salon, 5/13).

Op-Ed: Texas Bills Would Help 'Protect the Patient-Provider Relationship'
Two measures introduced in Texas "would protect the patient-provider relationship from inappropriate political interference in personal decisions that should be [made] by women and their trained health care providers," family physician Bich-May Nguyen writes in a Houston Chronicle opinion piece.

Fla. House Advances 24-Hour Mandatory Delay Bill
The Florida House on Wednesday voted 77-41 to advance a bill (HB 633) that would require a 24-hour mandatory delay period before a woman can have an abortion, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

Tenn. House Passes Two Antiabortion-Rights Bills
The Tennessee House on Tuesday approved two antiabortion-rights bills, with one (SB 1280) heading directly to Gov. Bill Haslam (R) and the other (SB 1222) going back to the state Senate for concurrence, AP/ABC News reports.

Tennessee Senate Approves Two Antiabortion-Rights Measures
The Tennessee Senate on Wednesday passed a measure (SB 1280) that would require abortion clinics to certify as ambulatory surgical centers and another bill (SB 1222) that would impose a mandatory delay before an abortion and require the physician to give in-person counseling, the Tennessean reports.

Tenn. House, Senate Advance 48-Hour Mandatory Delay, Biased Counseling Bill
Tennessee House and Senate committees this week advanced a measure (HB 989, SB 1190) that would impose a 48-hour mandatory delay before a woman could obtain an abortion and require that she receive in-person counseling from a physician prior to the procedure, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports.

Tenn. Lawmaker Withdraws Mandatory Ultrasound Bill
A Tennessee bill (HB 2) that would require a women seeking an abortion to receive a mandatory ultrasound and have the images displayed to her by the provider has been withdrawn for the year, the AP/Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

Featured Blogs
"Louisiana Women May Have To Travel Even Longer Than You Think for an Abortion," (Marty, Care 2, 3/18); "Four States That Are Actually Working To Protect Abortion Rights" (Culp-Ressler, "Think Progress," Center for American Progress, 3/19).

L.A. Times Profiles Abortion Provider at S.D.'s Only Clinic
In a Los Angeles Times profile, physician Carol Ball -- medical director for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota -- discusses the difficulties she faces in providing abortion care at South Dakota's lone abortion clinic amid increasing restrictions on the procedure in the state and across the U.S.

Mandatory Delays Treat Women as 'Incapable of Making Decisions' About Abortion, Op-Ed Argues
When the Missouri Legislature overrode Gov. Jay Nixon's (D) veto of a bill (HR 1307) that mandates a 72-hour delay before a woman can obtain an abortion, it was "a particularly good illustration of how needless abortion regulations treat women as second-class citizens who are incapable of making decisions for themselves," Scott Lemieux, a political science professor at the College of Saint Rose, writes in an opinion piece in The Week.

Veto of 72-Hour Mandatory Delay Bill Should Stand, Mo. Gov. Urges
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) on Thursday urged state lawmakers not to override his vetoes of several bills -- including one that would increase the state's mandatory delay before an abortion to 72 hours -- when they return for a special session next week, the Missourian reports.

Featured Blogs
"How Bad Medicine is Sweeping the Country, One State at a Time," (Culp-Ressler, "ThinkProgress," Center for American Progress, 7/14); "Tennessee Arrests First Mother Under Its New Pregnancy Criminalization Law," (Culp-Ressler, "ThinkProgress," Center for American Progress, 7/11).

Mo. Gov. Vetoes 72-Hour Mandatory Delay Bill
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) on Wednesday vetoed a bill (HB 1307) that would have created a mandatory delay of 72 hours from when a woman first seeks an abortion until she could obtain the procedure, the AP/ABC News reports.

Ala. Antiabortion-Rights Bills Head to Gov.
The Alabama Senate this week approved two antiabortion-rights bills (HB 489, HB 494), but the chamber did not vote on two other House-approved abortion-related measures before the legislative session ended on Thursday, Reuters reports.

Ala. Antiabortion-Rights Bills Head to Gov.
The Alabama Senate this week approved two antiabortion-rights bills (HB 489, HB 494), but the chamber did not vote on two other House-approved abortion-related measures before the legislative session ended on Thursday, Reuters reports.

Mo. House Advances 72-Hour Mandatory Delay Measure
The Missouri House on Tuesday passed a bill (HB 1307/1313) that would triple the state's mandatory delay period before an abortion, from 24 hours to 72 hours after a woman sees a physician, the AP/ABC News reports.

Featured Blogs
"10 Dangerous Anti-Abortion Bills That Are Already Gaining Traction This Year" (Culp-Ressler, "ThinkProgress," Center for American Progress, 2/18) and "The Failures of Abstinence-Only Education Illustrated in 2 Charts" (Culp-Ressler, "ThinkProgress," Center for American Progress, 2/20).

Va. Gov. Candidates Spar Over Abortion-Rights Issues
In the Virginia governor's race, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) and Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe both are attempting to portray the other as an extremist on abortion-related issues, the AP/NBC4 Washington reports.

Texas Lawmakers Broker Quiet Agreement on Women's Health Funds
Democrats and Republicans in the Texas Legislature are "quietly" working together to restore women's health funding, marking a sharp contrast from the "high-octane drama" over cuts to women's health services in recent years, the Texas Tribune/New York Times reports.

S.D. Gov. Signs Bill To Lengthen Waiting Period Requirement
South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) on Friday signed into law a bill that excludes weekends and holidays from the state's 72-hour waiting period before abortions, which would extend the wait to six days for a woman who seeks an abortion the Friday before a three-day weekend, Reuters reports.

Tenn. Lawmakers Drop Ultrasound Bill, Focus on Ballot Measure Instead
Tennessee Sen. Jim Tracy (R) and Rep. Rick Womick (R) announced on Wednesday that they will no longer pursue legislation (HB 984, SB 632) that would require abortion providers to perform an ultrasound and describe the image to the woman before an abortion, the AP/ Chattanooga Times Free Press reports.

Wyo. Senate Rejects Pre-Abortion Requirements
The Wyoming Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday voted 4-1 to reject a bill (SF 88) that would have required doctors and women to complete several steps, including a waiting period, before an abortion could be performed, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports.

Mich. House Sends Sweeping Antiabortion Bill to Gov. Snyder
The Michigan House on Thursday approved legislation (HB 5711) that would impose several new restrictions on abortion, although lawmakers removed one controversial provision relating to the disposal of fetal remains, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Judge Allows Some Parts of S.D. Abortion Law To Take Effect
A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that South Dakota may begin requiring physicians to ask women various screening questions before an abortion, but other provisions in the same law will remain blocked until she rules on a lawsuit challenging the statute, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

N.H. Senate Rejects Waiting Period Bill
The New Hampshire Senate on Wednesday rejected for the second time a bill (HB 1659) that would require women to wait 24 hours before obtaining abortion care, the AP/Foster's Daily Democrat reports.

Ky. House Panel Rejects Several Antiabortion Bills
The Kentucky House Health and Welfare Committee on Thursday rejected several antiabortion-rights bills, including a measure (SB 103) that would have required a woman to obtain an ultrasound before an abortion, the AP/Appleton Post Crescent reports.

S.D. Committee Proposes Changes to CPC Counseling Requirement
The South Dakota House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted 10-2 to approve a bill (HB 1254) that would alter a state law requiring women to obtain counseling at crisis pregnancy centers and wait 72 hours before receiving abortion care, the AP/Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports.

Fla. House Panel Advances Bills To Restrict Abortion Access
Florida House subcommittee on Tuesday approved three antiabortion-rights measures, including provisions that would require a 24-waiting period before the procedure, prohibit abortion for reasons related to sex or race and ban abortion care after 20 weeks of gestation, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

Judge Blocks Ultrasound Provision of N.C. Abortion Law
U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles on Tuesday temporarily blocked part of a new North Carolina law (HB 854) that requires abortion providers to conduct ultrasounds and describe the images to women before providing abortion services, Reuters reports.

Groups Challenge Constitutionality of N.C. Abortion Law
A coalition of five groups -- the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina and the Center for Reproductive Rights -- on Thursday filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of a North Carolina law that requires abortion providers to comply with specific requirements before a woman can have an abortion, ABC11-WTVD reports.

N.C. House Votes To Override Governor's Veto of Ultrasound Bill
The North Carolina House on Tuesday voted 72-47 to override Gov. Beverly Perdue's (D) veto of a bill (HB 854) that would require women to obtain an ultrasound and undergo mandatory counseling at least 24 hours prior to receiving abortion care, the AP/Raleigh News & Observer reports.

La. Gov. Signs Bill Requiring Abortion Clinic Signs, Website on Alternatives
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) on Wednesday signed a bill (HB 636) into law that requires the state to make information about abortion and pregnancy options available online and mandates that clinics post signs stating, among other things, that it is illegal to force a woman to have an abortion, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.

Preliminary Injunction Sought Against Texas Ultrasound Law
The Center for Reproductive Rights on Thursday filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against a Texas law that requires a woman seeking abortion care to have an ultrasound and hear a detailed description of the fetus at least 24 hours before the abortion procedure, the Houston Chronicle reports.

S.D. 72-Hour Waiting Period Law Temporarily Blocked
U.S. District Chief Judge Karen Schreier on Thursday granted a preliminary injunction against a South Dakota law that would require women to obtain counseling at crisis pregnancy centers and wait 72 hours before receiving abortion care, the AP/Washington Post reports.

Maine House Rejects Four Antiabortion-Rights Bills
The Maine House on Tuesday rejected four bills aiming to restrict abortion access, including measures related to waiting periods, pre-abortion counseling, parental consent and crimes against pregnant women, the AP/Boston Globe reports.

Abortion: Waiting Periods | In the Courts

Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota v. Daugaard
Challenge to a South Dakota law that would require a woman to wait seventy-two hours between her initial physician consultation and the abortion, force her to visit a crisis pregnancy center before abortion care, and require abortion providers to tell patients about any possible risk factor that have been published in any medical or psychological journal since 1972, including risks that have been roundly rejected by mainstream medicine.

Video Round Up

N.C. Gov. To Break Campaign Promise on Abortion Bills

AP/ABC News 11's Ed Crump discusses how North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) will break his campaign pledge to not sign any abortion restrictions if he signs a 72-hour mandatory delay bill into law. Watch the video

Datapoints

See where states rank on reproductive rights across the U.S. Plus, find out how states are imposing more restrictions on and limiting women's access to abortion. Read more

At A Glance

"Not since before Roe v. Wade has a law or court decision had the potential to devastate access to reproductive health care on such a sweeping scale."

— Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, on a ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld major portions of a Texas antiabortion-rights law. Read more